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Hey again HN! I'm sami, the creator of echo chess. Humbled to see this game up on HN again. This is a chess variant I first developed as a beta last year and th
by ramly 3y ago
Hey again HN! I'm sami, the creator of echo chess. Humbled to see this game up on HN again. This is a chess variant I first developed as a beta last year and the feedback from the community has been incredibly helpful.
Spent the past year iterating on it and honing it into a daily format. So many more improvements to come. Lmk if you have any questions or suggestions. Would love to hear your thoughts.
-How to play: You play White (it's always your turn). You become any piece you capture, and your goal is to clear the board in the fewest number of moves. You can capture your own pieces too. No castling, promotions, or en passant.
-What's Zen Mode: a procedurally generated infinite mode that uses an ML model I built. Happy to answer any questions on that.
https://echochess.com/ https://echochess.com/
- ramly 3y ago...Also for anyone who's curious about the extremely deep rabbit hole involved in this project, I think you'll enjoy this (somewhat) quick read: https://samiramly.com/chess https://samiramly.com/chess
- blakesley 3y agoWhoa, this post is actually really inspiring! It gives me a better understanding for why Echo Chess has more replayability than other lil' games I've toyed with. It makes me want to poke at new ideas now. Thanks for sharing this crazy journey of yours! I guess I also want to ask: are you making money on this? Like, how do you have this much time to spend on this project?
- ramly 3y agoThanks so much for reading this beast of a tech article haha! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm surprised people are actually reading the whole thing lol. Thank you for the kind words.
- samstave 3y agoSuper fun! THanks. 11 moves! and now I need to wait 24 hours! :-( You know what would be cool: flashing a trivia fact beneath the board with each move. Maybe a chess history fact? EDIT: Man - epic is no joke!... LOVE this.
- ramly 3y agolmaooo your edit killed me @samstave. Glad you're enjoying echo chess! and yes, some of the daily epic puzzles can be brutal :) I think it might help to start with a certain strategy in mind. were you able to hone in on a strategy for that one yet? lmk if I can help
- samstave 3y agoNo help thanks - I've only just discovered this and I like it breaking off the slag from my rusty gears. This would make a really cool watch-face for idling.... EDit: on second thought... I cannot figure out how to kill the black pawn above me.. https://i.imgur.com/bGJUFu8.png https://i.imgur.com/bGJUFu8.png https://i.imgur.com/nOVjAYW.png https://i.imgur.com/nOVjAYW.png (A replay button would be great)
- ramly 3y agoHah yes it does look like an 'H'. If you prefer a much smaller but equally (or arguably more) challenging puzzle, try this one: https://echochess.com/game.html?game_mode=DAILY&level_type=EPIC&level_date=2024-03-21 https://echochess.com/game.html?game_mode=DAILY&level_type=E...
- samstave 3y agoThis has me stumped https://i.imgur.com/SVoXsjb.png https://i.imgur.com/SVoXsjb.png - Yes, on hint, plz --- I keep them both useful until I have to capture the queen - so one turns into the queen, and if I send a bishop to take the knight its stuck there because if I take the knight then with the queen - the queen becomes the knight... same with the pawn.
- keyle 3y agoI'd love it on mobile as a native game.
- ramly 3y agoWill be coming very soon! What device/OS would you expect as a priority?
- FabioFleitas 3y agoNot OP, but would definitely enjoy this in iOS
- ramly 3y agoThanks, that's helpful
- fsflover 3y agoHow about a web app?
- robertlagrant 3y agoIsn't it already a web app?
- ramly 3y agoYep! It's accessible from any device/browser on echochess.com you can actually install it locally on any device straight from there too (e.g. on iOS if you're in Safari you can tap share > add to Home Screen)
- chedoku 3y agoWhat is the issue with having it as a web app?
- chedoku 3y agoSimple and minimalistic desing but hard to solve. Love it. Thanks Sami.
- ramly 3y agoThanks! Glad you're enjoying it and really grateful for the support
- Waterluvian 3y agoI like the music, but consider starting it muted and only downloading 3.6MB of mp3 if someone unmutes. This might be a good idea because it's typical that web games like this usually don't play music or even sounds. It's kind of a context thing? If in a game app, music and sounds are expected... if it's a website, not so much. This would also help reduce the fairly large download that makes the game a bit chonky to load.
- ramly 3y agoThanks Waterluvian, that's actually a really good point. Do you feel the same about the rest of the sound effects, or is it mostly the music starting as ON in the context of a web game that feels unexpected?
- Waterluvian 3y agoMusic is 9/10ths of it. If it played sounds that’s generally fine as long as they can be muted. But I personally feel strongly that music should start muted if it’s a webpage. Thanks for taking the time to respond to feedback!
- ramly 3y agoMakes total sense, very helpful nuance. Will keep that in mind!
- otteromkram 3y agoNot to original person you replied to here, but I usually don't like sound effects or music for web gsmes. Having both muted to start would be ideal.
- ramly 3y agoGood point otteromkram. Thanks for the input
- vlw 3y agoI don't agree, most games (even web games) play music. A "normal" website should not play music, I agree. But this is a game. Plus I for one liked the cute sound effects and didn't even think about the music as something unusual.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- romellem 3y agoFun game! This seems similar to a game useChess - https://use-chess.fall-2023.reactjam.com https://use-chess.fall-2023.reactjam.com - I played last year. Would you happen to be the same author?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ramly 3y agoFirst time I see that! Not the most intuitive interactions imho but fun game to try.
- edanm 3y agoReally cool! The only feedback I'd add is to make it more clear that the red squares are just inaccessible, because that wasn't at all clear at first. When failing to move a piece, the red squares together with a non-standard mechanic makes it unclear what you're missing. Probably just some text at the top of the puzzle or a better UI cue would be enough.
- ramly 3y agoThanks edanm, really glad you're enjoying echo chess! Very good point, will iterate on that. Would it help if the obstacle squares had some pattern/texture in them or something like an 'x' inside instead of simply being a different color?
- edanm 3y agoYes, I believe that would help. Or perhaps make them appear "raised" or something like that - like a raised block that can't be traversed.
- ramly 3y agoYeah I tried experimenting with that a bit at the beginning. For some reason it kept looking too '3D-ish' compared to the rest of the flat material design. Do you have any visual examples you've seen of something closer to what you have in mind? Would be super helpful, thanks.